Lab Exercises to Prepare for Developing World Hospital Equipment Work (Staff Version)[

Abstract:

In 2003, Engineering World Health reported that 44% of the medical equipment problems found in the developing world are user error (only slightly higher than found in the United States). How to diagnose and understand user error (when you do not have the manual) is not covered in this book. Diagnoses and understanding are topics covered in “Medical Instrumentation in the Developing World”. However, this book does contain an exercise on how to teach a user how to use medical equipment. This training is more complicated in the developing world, where you often do not speak the local language and do not share local culture.
About 27% of the problems seen in the developing world were reported to be power supply related. Power supplies are therefore a central focus of this text. You will get a chance to build, repair and troubleshoot a typical power supply found in the older equipment you are likely to encounter. Along the way, you will also build a few pieces of test equipment that you might find valuable while you are there.
However, you must have broken equipment to repair! This book will also cover exercises to help you understand how the hospital operates and how you must behave in order to gain access to broken equipment.
Finally, documenting your work is critical. If you leave your work undocumented, future volunteers are likely to repeat the same mistakes, and the organization sponsoring your trip may lose interest in sending engineering help. This book will cover the basic documentation that you should expect to complete.